Ana Egge

Thursday, March 21Show starts at 10:00
$10 cover

In Robert Frost's iconic poem "The Road Not Taken," the narrator looks back wistfully on a lifetime of choices and how the "road less traveled . . . has made all the difference." Ana Egge has been forging her own path for over a decade now. In the tradition of her parents, who Ana says were "motorcycle-riding hippy farmers in North Dakota, who created the unconventional life they wanted," Ana's path as an artist has been much the same -- challenging herself to follow her instincts rather than trying to fit into any particular mold. This honest approach has produced an impressive body of work and earned Ana a reputation as a musician's musician, with unforgettable live performances and lyrics that paint vast landscapes and stories in her singular style. It's no wonder she's been compared to legends like Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, and Bonnie Raitt. But, perhaps USA Today said it best when they wrote, "[Ana] can write and sing rings around" her contemporaries.

Lucinda Williams once called her "a folk Nina Simone." But Ana Egge is more country than that. Raised by hippies who grew wheat in North Dakota, the Brooklyn singer–songwriter crafts homespun hymns on her sixth disc to sing with your bare feet on the dashboard. "Bully of New York" recounts a sad late–night conversation between Egge and a park ranger whose hours broke up his marriage (best part: She met him while hitchhiking). Egge's rootsy pedal–steel pop recalls singers like Shawn Colvin, but her sharply observed tales of the overlooked and underpaid feel utterly of the moment. THREE STARS
MELISSA MAERZ